The Wonga Coup, Adam Roberts
The Wonga Coup, Adam Roberts
4 Rating(s)
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The Wonga Coup
A Tale of Guns, Germs and the Steely Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa

Author: Adam Roberts

Narrator: Simon Vance

Unabridged: 8 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/15/2006

Synopsis

Equatorial Guinea is a tiny country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Humid, jungle covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, natives call it Devil Island. Its president in 2004, Obiang Nguema, had been accused of cannibalism, belief in witchcraft, mass murder, billion-dollar corruption, and general rule by terror. With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African and Zimbabwean mercenaries, traveling on an American-registered ex-National Guard plane specially adapted for military purposes, that was originally flown to Africa by American pilots? The real motive lay deep below the ocean floor: oil.

In The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth effectively described an attempt by mercenaries to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea - in 1972. And the chain of events surrounding the night of March 7, 2004, is a rare case of life imitating art-or, at least, life imitating a 1970s thriller-in almost uncanny detail. With a cast of characters worthy of a remake of Wild Geese and a plot as mazy as it was unlikely, The Wonga Coup is a tale of venality, overarching vanity and greed whose example speaks to the problems of the entire African continent.
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About Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts is Reader in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ann on March 10, 2016

I’ve been doing this project of learning about Africa one nation at a time for about a year and a half now, and I have read a lot of academic books. In some of these small countries, the only people doing the research are those looking for more and more obscure dissertation topics. I expected to fin......more

Goodreads review by Meredith on March 18, 2009

It is amazing what white men think they can still get away with in modern Africa. Only African heads of state can act with the sort of complete impunity that Simon Mann tried to get away with in his attempt to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.......more

Goodreads review by 123abc on February 06, 2024

a really interesting book about a failed coup attempt in equatorial guinea in 2004. Felt the storytelling in the book was not particularly good though.......more

Goodreads review by Brock on July 08, 2008

This book was made more enjoyable by my having recently finished Robert Klitgaard's Tropical Gangsters, which is a book about World Bank/IMF development activities in Equitorial Guinea nearly 20 years before the activities described in The Wonga Coup. I'm not sure if I would have given this one thre......more

Goodreads review by Patrick on September 26, 2008

It's good, especially if you're interested in energy politics, or, even better, if you have a secret fascination with mercenaries. The actual story is riveting, and Roberts has clearly exhaustively researched everything. Also provides an interesting look at modern African politics. On the other hand,......more

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